


Another Dance

by ecotone



Series: Scatter the Ash [2]
Category: Destiny (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, sarcasm in the face of Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-14
Updated: 2016-03-14
Packaged: 2018-05-26 14:32:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6243202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ecotone/pseuds/ecotone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sai Mota, for all her strengths, cannot dig herself out of this pit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Another Dance

Once, Sai had asked an old Hunter for advice. It had been when she was freshly resurrected, with unscarred skin and smooth palms and a heart full of Light.

Hunters pride themselves on being unseen, he’d said, absently sharpening his knife. _You’ll never see us coming and all that._

Stealth can come in handy, surrounded by Darkness.

There are always two options, he’d told her.  
1\. Run. Retreat, formulate a plan, pick them off.  
2\. Claw your way out.

Option Two is tried by two groups: the new Guardians and the experienced ones. The ones in the middle tend to at least _try_ to live.

=*=

Sai Mota, when she went down into the pit, fell into the category of ‘experienced.’

She wasn’t by any means one of the first Guardians, but she had made enough of a name for herself that Eriana had asked her to venture into Crota’s realm with the rest of her fireteam.

Hunters, as a rule, don’t turn down a challenge.

So, Sai packed her guns and got ready for the journey into the Moon. Above her, her Ghost blinked nervously.

“Are you sure about this? This is above you and me, above the Vanguard. Who knows what’s in that pit?"

“Yeah, I know. Remind me to make sure I have all of my knives before we leave. The best offense is as much Arc energy as we can muster."

=*=

Another rule: venturing into fortresses of the Darkness never bodes well. It hadn’t gone well for Kabr and his fireteam, and it certainly wasn’t going well for them.

Vell had stayed at the Gate, holding off Verok and her Legion. Sai wished a Titan could wear a Hunter’s armor; then, at least, she’d be able to help him.

The five descended, Vell’s fury following them down.

=*=

Sai wasn’t sure how she’d died in her first life. All she had from then was a few stray memories, a quick laugh and snippets of conversation. For all she knew, she’d died from some disease that had been cured a few years later with the arrival of the Traveler.

A shame, that she’d barely missed it. “She’s certainly a fighter,” she heard someone from a thousand years ago say.

Well, she was certainly one now.

With Vell’s last stand on her mid, Sai decided stealth was useless. They were miles underground, surrounded by Hive royalty.

“Really?” Eriana sighed. “Using Light for _that_?"

Three eyes stared back at the Exo. Stealth was useless now; the Eyes saw all that hid in the Dark.

“Anything that helps us live longer,” she said, thrusting a knife into an Acolyte’s skull. “We can’t hide forever."

Omar just laughed, the sound reverberating off the cavern walls. “Are you _sure_ you weren’t just going for style points?"

=*=

Shortly after, the fireteam was split up, stumbling through the winding tunnels that lead to Crota’s throne. Sai wished she knew where Toland was; having him beside her would make killing Omnigul a bit easier. At the very least, she’d know _how_ to kill the thing.

Eriana and Sai knew they would never leave the pit, but at least they were both ready to go out with a bang.

A blaze of glory, Sai thought. How unlike a Hunter. Much more fashionable, though. Someone should let Brask know.

Eriana was recording what was probably their last few minutes. Their Ghosts were barely alive, unable to communicate or transmat. Adds to the suspense, Sai supposed, grinning beneath her helmet. Beside her, Eriana fidgeted.

_"The Hand is falling back toward the screams beyond these tunnels."_

_"Screw it. You ready?"_

_"My knives are eager for another dance."_

=*=

As it turned out, last deaths were rather frantic. Sai figured last stands were probably meant to be dramatic, especially if all those pre-Golden Age films she'd marathoned with Omar and Vell were to be believed. Her last words _meant something_ , this time.

Clawing her way out it was.

All the bladedancers she had met were naturally frantic, sprinting from place to place and leaving Arc lightning in their wake. Blinking was useful for outmaneuvering, getting behind an enemy to find an opening. Bladedancers were chaotic, and she was damned if it hadn’t gotten her a few extra Crucible kills.

For now, she focused all her manic energy and formed her knives.

Acolytes went down easy; one slash and they were sizzling vapor, torn apart under her crackling knives. The Mask let her keep going, channeling any extra energy it could. And when it was out, when she was drained of all the Arc energy she had left?

She grabbed a bone and started laughing.

=*=

“Wow,” Omar said.

“Thanks for the help,” Sai groaned. “I’m assuming you owe me a few hundred glimmer?"

“For which bet? The afterlife one or the ‘Vell has an existential crisis’ one? And hey, look at you. You got to keep a souvenir and everything. _I visited Hell, and all I got was this t-shirt and a bone I used to slaughter my enemies_."

“Yeah, yeah. I’m thinking about testing a hypothesis. Wanna see if you can come back to life from here?"

Omar laughed. “‘ _Hypothesis_ ’? You’ve been hanging out with Eriana too much. Come on, Vell’s gonna faint if we don’t get back. By the way, Wei’s been keeping him company while we all got our asses kicked.”

Sai grinned. “That we did, my friend. We’re not as heroic as we thought. Actually, maybe we’ll be known as legends or something. They might throw a parade in our honor."

“Maybe there’ll be speeches."

“Let’s hope. What kind of bone is this, anyway? A femur?"

“Do acolytes _have_ femurs?"

=*=

The afterlife, it turns out, gets boring pretty quickly.

Sai had already arm wrestled everyone in the vicinity (two wins; Wei destroyed her), and waiting for Eriana was getting stale. She was ready to jump off the cliff (Wei had assured they couldn’t die in Guardian heaven, but she wanted to try anyway) when Vell called her over. He was already sitting with Wei, probably talking about something boring and Titan-related like the status of the Wall. She sat down next to the pair and watched as Omar wandered over from where he’d been lying down. Earlier, the two Hunters had been trying to find out where Toland had vanished to, but they hadn’t come up with much. Wei had told them about the presence somewhere in the Veil the Warlocks referred to as ‘Osiris’ voicemail’.

She figured they hadn’t had much luck finding them, either.

“Alright! We still have a lot to catch you guys up on,” Wei said, seemingly unaffected by their arrivals. She’d been here awhile, Sai figured. There must be Guardians arriving up here every week, if not daily.

They were all talking about nothing when the grass a few hundred feet away burst into flames.

“There’s our girl,” Sai said, looking at the smoke. The grass seemed unharmed, which sort of made sense. It was probably non-corporeal, maybe even made of pure Light. Was there a way to check? Maybe someone knew. She could ask--

Okay, she was _definitely_ talking to too many Warlocks lately.

Wei grinned as she saw the fire. “Out with a bang, I’m assuming. That looks like a Radiance death to me.”

Vell stood up, but Wei waved at him. “Deaths while in Radiance take awhile to cool down from. Plus, I don’t think Eriana’d want us all over her this soon."

“All but one of us,” Omar muttered. Sai gasped, faux-scandalized, as Wei knocked him over. They all laughed, though Omar was still rubbing at his shoulder as he sat up.

“Hey, what do we do once Eriana's caught up? Other people up here were killed by Crota at Mare Imbrium. Do we tell them what happened to us down there, or that Eris is still in the tunnels? She could still escape."

“We don’t know that she will, though,” Wei said. “The Vanguard needs at least some victory from this, but we just don’t know yet."

“What if she does, though? The Vanguard will have information, can use it to formulate a better plan, send a better team."

“There’s no better team than us,” Sai said, grinning. “They’re all screwed."

“Says the dead lady to a bunch of other dead Guardians post-absolute _obliteration_."

“I’m just saying, I don’t know-“ Wei paused as the others stopped bickering and looked behind her. Turning, she grinned. “Hey, look who’s awake!”

Eriana stopped, stared, and sat down, eyes wide. Sai thought it was pretty funny, in a weird, sad way.

The group answered all of the Warlock’s questions- where they were, could they see Eris, was Toland here or was he wandering through creepy-old-man-heaven instead, et cetera. Sai wondered how Wei was so patient with all of them, catching them up without complaint. Patience was a Titan virtue, she supposed, for all Hunters boasted about waiting for the perfect shot.

Sai tried to comfort Eriana as much as she could, knowing the Exo was likely running every calculation she could think of through her head. She was known for overthinking things, and Sai was known for jumping head first into danger. Case in point: diving into a sea of Hive to get to Omnigul, who she didn’t even know how to kill.

Arc energy still crackled in her bones, in the plasma in her blood, but it was less manic than before. Her job was done. Though, if all those old movies were to be believed, the five of them would return to earth as ghosts and help Eris solve a murder or something.

**Author's Note:**

> a couple things-  
> a) sai's probably my favorite of the lore characters. even though all we know about her basically amounts to "doesn't talk much, died laughing like a maniac," i still think she's cool.  
> b) while this is sorta a continuation on that thing with Eriana's death, it is much less angsty- hunters are naturally snarky, i can't help it.
> 
> that's all I have for now! Any comments/questions are welcome.


End file.
